The city and the police union have agreed on two three-year contracts, after more than three years of contentious negotiations.

On Oct. 19, the police union voted to accept the two pacts that cover the union from the time when the previous contract expired in 2002 until July 1, 2008. Police Union President Detective John Desjardins declined to disclose the exact vote, but he said it passed by an “overwhelming majority.”

On Monday night, the City Council voted, 7-0, to approve the contracts. They will not become final until the council holds a second vote, which will be at its next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 7.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said, despite the length of the negotiations, he was glad to end them on a positive note. “I think both sides ended up making reasonable concessions and came up with two excellent contracts,” he said.

Desjardins said he was relieved that an agreement had finally been reached. “I’m glad that we don’t have to worry about our pay and benefits again until 2008,” he said.

Mayor Bruce Chuluda said he was happy the long contract negotiations were finally over. “While everyone would have liked to have reached this point much sooner, these agreements assure that our highly valued police officers will receive competitive wages and benefits while the community continues to receive quality law enforcement at a manageable cost,” he said.

The contracts, which were primarily based on a fact finder’s report issued by the Maine Labor Relations Board, provides a 9 percent retroactive wage increase for officers for the years 2002 through 2004. The contract then provides police with raises of 2 percent in 2005, 2 percent in 2006 and 2.5 percent in 2007.

“I think it’s a fair contract,” said Sgt. Mike Sanphy, a member of the union’s negotiating team. “We did our best, and I think it was fair to us and the city both.”

The new contract places every police officer in the Maine State Retirement System under a plan that allows officers to retire after 25 years at half pay. The police had been pushing for a 20-year retirement plan, but agreed to the 25-year plan based on the recommendations in the fact finder’s report.

While they would have preferred 20-year retirement, officers were pleased to get the contract settled and be going back into the state retirement system. “I’m happy that everybody is back under Maine State Retirement. It makes us all equals,” said Patrolman Peter Youland.

The new contract also makes some changes in how much officers pay for their health insurance. Previously, the city paid 100 percent of all health insurance costs. Under the new contract, officers will still pay nothing for single coverage, but they will now pay 15 percent of the cost of family coverage. The report issued by the labor board found it was not uncommon to expect employees to pay a portion of their health coverage.

“In both the public and private sectors, employers are increasingly being forced to ask that their employees pick up a higher portion of the increasingly common large annual increases in health insurance premiums,” the report said. “The panel believes both employers and employees share the responsibility for doing what they can in keeping costs down and to share in cost increases.”

The prolonged contract dispute has had a negative effect on morale in the department. Signs of the displeasure with the negotiations were readily evident. For more than a year, many officers wore buttons reading “Serving without a contract” on their uniforms. And when the new Public Safety Building was getting ready to open last year, members of the police union picketed outside the building and refused to move into the new building for almost a week, working instead out of their cars.

The union also made their case to the public and the City Council, with members speaking out at public comment periods at council meetings.

Desjardins said while news of the new contract has brightened things somewhat for union members, the long negotiations have taken a toll on officer morale, and it could be a while until things get back to normal. “It has improved some,” said Desjardins. “But this was a three-plus-year process where over time morale degraded, and it’s going to take some time to get it back up where it should be,” he said.

Youland said he hopes once the contract is approved by the City Council and the new wages and benefits begin to kick in, morale at the department would improve, but for now, Youland felt morale among the officers is still down. “I don’t think it will improve until we see the money in our paycheck,” he said.